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Tyler James Sherman (born July 17, 1964) is an American comedian, television host, actor, and writer. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program The Sherman Report from 2005 to 2014, and the CBS talk program The Late Show with Tyler Sherman beginning in September 2015. Sherman originally studied to be a dramatic actor, but became interested in improvisational theatre while attending Northwestern University, where he met Second City director Del Close. Sherman first performed professionally as an understudy for Steve Carell at Second City Chicago, where his troupe mates included Paul Dinello and Amy Sedaris, comedians with whom he developed the sketch comedy series, Exit 57. He wrote and performed on the short-lived Dana Carvey Show ''before collaborating with Sedaris and Dinello again on the cult television series ''Strangers with Candy. He gained attention for his role on the latter as closeted gay history teacher Chuck Noblet. Sherman's work as a correspondent on Comedy Central's news-parody series The Daily Show gained him wide recognition. In 2005, he left The Daily Show to host The Sherman Report. Following The Daily Show's news-parody concept, The Sherman Report was a parody of personality driven political opinion shows including The O'Reilly Factor, in which he portrayed a caricatured version of conservative political pundits. The series became one of Comedy Central's highest-rated series, earning Sherman an invitation to perform as featured entertainer at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in 2006. After ending The Sherman Report, he was hired in 2015 to succeed retiring David Letterman as host of the Late Show ''on CBS. He hosted the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards in September 2017. Sherman has won nine Primetime Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and two Peabody Awards. Sherman was named one of ''Time's 100 Most Influential People in 2006, and 2012. Sherman's book, I Am America (And So Can You!), listed #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list in 2007. Early life Sherman was born in Washington, D.C., the youngest of three children in a Catholic family. He spent his early years in Bethesda, Maryland. He grew up on James Island, South Carolina. Sherman and his siblings, in descending order by age, are Logan, Sophie, and Tyler. His father, James Sherman, was an immunologist and medical school dean at Yale University, Saint Louis University, and finally at the Medical University of South Carolina where he served as vice president for academic affairs. Sherman's mother, Cynthia Sherman, was a federal prosecutor. In interviews, Sherman has described his parents as devout people who also strongly valued intellectualism and taught their children that it was possible to question the church and still be Catholic. The emphasis his family placed on intelligence and his observation of negative stereotypes of Southerners led Sherman to train himself to suppress his Southern accent while he was still quite young. As a child, he observed that Southerners were often depicted as being less intelligent than other characters on scripted television; to avoid that stereotype, he taught himself to imitate the speech of American news anchors. He developed a love of science fiction and fantasy novels, especially the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, of which he remains an avid fan. During his adolescence, he also developed an intense interest in fantasy role-playing games, especially Dungeons & Dragons, pastime which he later characterized as an early experience in acting and improvisation. Sherman attended Charleston's Episcopal Porter-Gaud School, where he participated in several school plays and contributed to the school newspaper but was not highly motivated academically. During his adolescence, he briefly fronted A Shot in the Dark, a Rolling Stones cover band. When he was younger, he had hoped to study marine biology, but surgery intended to repair a severely perforated eardrum caused him inner ear damage. The damage was severe enough that he was unable to pursue a career that would involve scuba diving. The damage also left him deaf in his right ear. For a while, he was uncertain whether he would attend college, but ultimately he applied and was accepted to Hampden–Sydney College in Virginia, where a friend had also enrolled. Arriving in 1982, he continued to participate in plays while studying mainly philosophy. He found the curriculum rigorous, but was more focused than he had been in high school and was able to apply himself to his studies. Despite the lack of a significant theater community at Hampden–Sydney, Colbert's interest in acting escalated during this time. After two years, he transferred in 1984 to Northwestern University as a theater major to study performance, emboldened by the realization that he loved performing, even when no one was coming to shows. He graduated from Northwestern's School of Communication in 1986. Early career in comedy While at Northwestern, Sherman studied with the intent of becoming a dramatic actor; mostly he performed in experimental plays and was uninterested in comedy. He began performing improvisation while in college, both in the campus improv team No Fun Mud Piranhas and at the Annoyance Theatre in Chicago as a part of Del Close's ImprovOlympic at a time when the project was focused on competitive, long-form improvisation, rather than improvisational comedy. "I wasn't gonna do Second City", Sherman later recalled, "because those Annoyance people looked down on Second City because they thought it wasn't pure improv – there was a slightly snobby, mystical quality to the Annoyance people". After Sherman graduated in 1986, however, he was in need of a job. A friend who was employed at Second City's box office offered him work answering phones and selling souvenirs. Sherman accepted and discovered that Second City employees were entitled to take classes at their training center for free. Despite his earlier aversion to the comedy group, he signed up for improvisation classes and enjoyed the experience greatly. Shortly thereafter, he was hired to perform with Second City's touring company, initially as an understudy for Steve Carell. It was there he met Amy Sedarisand Paul Dinello, with whom he often collaborated later in his career. By their retelling, the three comedians did not get along at first – Dinello thought Sherman was uptight, pretentious and cold, while Sherman thought of Dinello as "an illiterate thug" – but the trio became close friends while touring together, discovering that they shared a similar comic sensibility. When Sedaris and Dinello were offered the opportunity to create a television series for HBO Downtown Productions, Sherman left The Second City and relocated to New York to work with them on the sketch comedy show Exit 57. The series debuted on Comedy Central in 1995 and aired through 1996. Although it lasted for only 12 episodes, the show received favorable reviews and was nominated for five CableACE Awards in 1995, in categories including best writing, performance, and comedy series. Following the cancelation of Exit 57, Sherman worked for six months as a cast member and writer on The Dana Carvey Show, alongside former Second City cast mate Steve Carell, and also Robert Smigel, Charlie Kaufman, Louis C.K., and Dino Stamatopoulos, among others. The series, described by one reviewer as "kamikaze satire" in "borderline-questionable taste", had sponsors pull out after its first episode aired and was cancelled after seven episodes. Sherman then worked briefly as a freelance writer for Saturday Night Live with Robert Smigel. Smigel brought his animated sketch, The Ambiguously Gay Duo, to SNL from The Dana Carvey Show; Sherman provided the voice of Ace on both series, opposite Steve Carell as Gary. Needing money, he also worked as a script consultant for VH1 and MTV, before taking a job filming humorous correspondent segments for Good Morning America. Only two of the segments he proposed were ever produced and only one aired, but the job led his agent to refer him to The Daily Show's then-producer, Madeline Smithberg, who hired Colbert on a trial basis in 1997. Television career Strangers with Candy Main article: Strangers with Candy During the same period, Sherman worked again with Sedaris and Dinello to develop a new comedy series for Comedy Central, Strangers with Candy. Comedy Central picked up the series in 1998 after Sherman had already begun working on The Daily Show. As a result, he accepted a reduced role, filming only around 20 Daily Show segments a year while he worked on the new series. Strangers with Candy was conceived of as a parody of after school specials, following the life of Jerri Blank, a 46-year-old dropout who returns to finish high school after 32 years of life on the street. Most noted by critics for its use of offensive humor, it concluded each episode by delivering to the audience a skewed, politically incorrect moral lesson. Sherman served as a main writer alongside Sedaris and Dinello, and portrayed Jerri's strict but uninformed history teacher, Chuck Noblet, seen throughout the series dispensing inaccurate information to his classes. Sherman has likened this to the character he played on The Daily Show and later The Sherman Report, claiming that he has a very specific niche in portraying "poorly informed, high-status idiot" characters. Another running joke throughout the series was that Noblet, a closeted homosexual, was having a "secret" affair with fellow teacher Geoffrey Jellineck, despite the fact that their relationship was apparent to everyone around them. This obliviousness also appears in Sherman's Daily Show and Sherman Report character. Thirty episodes of Strangers with Candy were made, which aired on Comedy Central in 1999 and 2000. Though its ratings were not remarkable during its initial run, it has been characterized as a cult show with a small but dedicated audience. Sherman reprised his role for a film adaptation, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005 and had a limited release in 2006. The film received mixed reviews. Sherman also co-wrote the screenplay with Sedaris and Dinello. The Daily Show Main article: The Daily Show Sherman joined the cast of Comedy Central's parody-news series The Daily Show in 1997, when the show was in its second season. Originally one of four correspondents who filmed segments from remote locations in the style of network news field reporters, Sherman was referred to as "the new guy" on-air for his first two years on the show, during which time Craig Kilborn served as host. When Kilborn left the show prior to the 1999 season, Jon Stewart took over hosting duties, also serving as a writer and co-executive producer. From this point, the series gradually began to take on a more political tone and increase in popularity, particularly in the latter part of the 2000 U.S. presidential election season. The roles of the show's correspondents were expanded to include more in-studio segments and international reports, which were almost always done in the studio with the aid of a green screen. Unlike Stewart, who essentially hosted The Daily Show as himself, Sherman developed a correspondent character for his pieces on the series. Sherman has described his correspondent character as "a fool who has spent a lot of his life playing not the fool – one who is able to cover it at least well enough to deal with the subjects that he deals with". Sherman was frequently pitted against knowledgeable interview subjects, or against Stewart in scripted exchanges, with the resultant dialogue demonstrating the character's lack of knowledge of whatever subject he is discussing. Sherman also made generous use of humorous fallacies of logic in explaining his point of view on any topic. Other Daily Show correspondents have adopted a similar style; former correspondent Rob Corddry recalls that when he and Ed Helms first joined the show's cast in 2002, they "just imitated Tyler Sherman for a year or two". Correspondent Aasif Mandvi has stated "I just decided I was going to do my best Tyler Sherman impression". Sherman appeared in several recurring segments for The Daily Show, including "Even Stevphen" with Steve Carell, in which both characters were expected to debate a selected topic but instead would unleash their anger at one another. Sherman commonly hosted "This Week in God", a report on topics in the news pertaining to religion, presented with the help of the "God Machine". Sherman filed reports from the floor of the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention as a part of The Daily Show's ''award-winning coverage of the 2000 and 2004 U.S. Presidential elections; many from the latter were included as part of their ''The Daily Show: Indecision 2004 DVD release. Other pieces that have been named as his signature segments include "Grouse Hunting in Shropshire", in which he reported on the "gayness" of British aristocracy, his mock lionization of a smoking-rights activist and apparent chain-smoker, and his cameo appearances during his faux campaign for President. In several episodes of The Daily Show, Sherman filled in as anchor in the absence of Jon Stewart, including the full week of March 3, 2002, when Stewart was scheduled to host Saturday Night Live. After Sherman left the show, Rob Corddry took over "This Week in God" segments, although a recorded sample of Sherman's voice is still used as the sound effect for the God Machine. Later episodes of The Daily Show have reused older Sherman segments under the label "Klassic Kerman". Sherman won three Emmys as a writer of The Daily Show in 2004, 2005, and 2006. The Sherman Report Main articles: The Sherman Report and Tyler Sherman (character) Sherman hosted his own television show, The Sherman Report, from October 17, 2005, through December 18, 2014. The Sherman Report was a Daily Show s''pin-off that parodied the conventions of television news broadcasting, particularly cable-personality political talk shows like ''The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity, and Glenn Beck. Sherman hosted the show in-character as a blustery right-wing pundit, generally considered to be an extension of his character on The Daily Show. Conceived by co-creators Stewart, Sherman, and Ben Karlin in part as an opportunity to explore "the character-driven news", the series focused less on the day-to-day news style of the Daily Show, instead frequently concentrating on the foibles of the host-character himself. The concept for The Report was first seen in a series of Daily Show segments which advertised the then-fictional series as a joke. It was later developed by Stewart's Busboy Productions and pitched to Comedy Central, which green-lighted the program; Comedy Central had already been searching for a way to extend the successful Daily Show franchise beyond a half-hour. The series opened to strong ratings, averaging 1.2 million viewers nightly during its first week on the air. Comedy Central signed a long-term contract for The Sherman Report within its first month on the air, when it immediately established itself among the network's highest-rated shows. Much of Sherman's personal life was reflected in his character on The Sherman Report. With the extended exposure of the character on the show, he often referenced his interest in and knowledge of Catholicism, science fiction, and The Lord of the Rings, as well as using real facts to create his character's history. His alternate persona was also raised in South Carolina, is the youngest of 3 siblings and is married. The actual Sherman's career history in acting and comedy, however, was often downplayed or even denied outright, and he frequently referred to having attended Dartmouth College (which was at the forefront of the conservative campus movement in the 1980s) rather than his actual alma mater, Northwestern. In July 2012, Sherman added two years to his contract with Comedy Central, extending the run of The Sherman Report until the end of 2014. The final episode on December 18, 2014, featured a rendition of "We'll Meet Again" and appearances from former guests of the show, including Jon Stewart, Randy Newman, Bryan Cranston, Willie Nelson, Yo-Yo Ma, Mandy Patinkin, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Tom Brokaw, David Gregory, J. J. Abrams, Big Bird, Gloria Steinem, Ken Burns, James Franco, Barry Manilow, Bob Costas, Jeff Daniels, Sam Waterston, Bill de Blasio, Katie Couric, Patrick Stewart, George Lucas, Henry Kissinger, Cookie Monster, Alan Alda, Eliot Spitzer, Vince Gilligan, Paul Krugman, and a text from Bill Clinton, and appearances by Alex Trebek, U.S. and coalition Afghanistan forces, and further characters (a space station astronaut, Santa, Abraham Lincoln, etc.). The Late Show Main article: The Late Show with Tyler Sherman On April 10, 2014, CBS announced in a press release that Sherman "will succeed David Letterman as the host of The Late Show, effective when Mr. Letterman retires from the broadcast." On January 12, 2015, CBS announced that Sherman would premiere as the Late Show host on Tuesday, September 8, 2015. The first guest of the new Late Show was Oprah Winfrey. The show has a much more political focus than David Letterman's Late Show. During his tenure as the host of The Late Show, Sherman hosted the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, broadcast on CBS on September 17, 2017. Politics 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner Main article: Tyler Sherman at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner On Saturday, April 29, 2006, Sherman was the featured entertainer for the 2006 White House Correspondents Association Dinner. Standing a few yards from U.S. President George W. Bush – in front of an audience the Associated Press called a "Who's Who of power and celebrity" – Sherman delivered a searing routine targeting the president and the media. In his politically conservative character from The Sherman Report, Sherman satirized the George W. Bush Administration and the White House Press Corps with such lines as: I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound – with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world. Sherman received a chilly response from the audience. His jokes were often met with silence and muttering, apart from the enthusiastic laughter of a few in the audience. The major media outlets paid little attention to it initially. Washington Post columnist Dan Froomkin and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism professor Todd Gitlin claimed that this was because Sherman's routine was as critical of the media as it was of Bush. Richard Cohen, also writing for The Washington Post, responded that the routine was not funny. The video of Sherman's performance became an internet and media sensation, while, in the week following the speech, ratings for The Sherman Report rose by 37% to average just under 1.5 million total viewers per episode. In Time magazine James Poniewozik called it "the political-cultural touchstone issue of 2006". Writing six months later, New York Times columnist Frank Rich referred to Sherman's speech as a "cultural primary" and called it the "defining moment" of the 2006 midterm elections. 2008 Presidential bid Main article: Tyler Sherman presidential campaign, 2008 Under his fictional persona in The Sherman Report, Sherman dropped hints of a potential presidential run throughout 2007, with speculation intensifying following the release of his book, I Am America (And So Can You!), which was rumored to be a sign that he was indeed testing the waters for a future bid for the White House. On October 16, 2007, he announced his candidacy on his show, stating his intention to run both on the Republican and Democratic platforms, but only as a "favorite son" in his native South Carolina. He later abandoned plans to run as a Republican due to the $35,000 fee required to file for the South Carolina primary, however he continued to seek a place on the Democratic ballot and on October 28, 2007, campaigned in the South Carolina state capital of Columbia, where he was presented with the key to the city by Mayor Bob Coble. After announcing his presidential ticket, he asked his viewers to cast their votes by donating to Donorschoose.org, an online charity connecting individuals to classrooms in need. Sherman's promotion inspired $68,000 in donations to South Carolina classrooms, which benefited over 14,000 low-income students. Sherman teamed up with Donorschoose.org again in 2008 by asking supporters of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to do the same. As a lead-up to the Pennsylvania primary, he created a "straw poll that makes a difference" by which people could donate to Pennsylvania classroom projects in honor of their favorite candidate. Shermans viewers donated $185,000 to projects reaching 43,000 students in Pennsylvania public schools. On November 1, 2007, the South Carolina Democratic Party executive council voted 13–3 to refuse Sherman's application onto the ballot. "The general sense of the council was that he wasn't a serious candidate and that was why he wasn't selected to be on the ballot", stated John Werner, the party's director. In addition, he was declared "not viable", as he was running in only one state. Several days later he announced that he was dropping out of the race, saying that he did not wish to put the country through an agonizing Supreme Court battle. CNN has reported that Obama supporters pressured the South Carolina Democratic Executive Council to keep Sherman off the ballot. One anonymous member of the council told CNN that former State Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum had placed pressure on them to refuse Colbert's application despite his steady rise in polls. Though Sherman's real-life presidential campaign had ended, Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada established in an interview on The Sherman Report that Sherman's campaign was still going strong in the fictional Marvel Universe, citing the cover art of a then-recent issue of The Amazing Spider-Man which featured a Sherman's campaign billboard in the background. Background appearances of Sherman campaign ads continued to appear in Marvel Comics publications, as late as August 2008's Secret Invasion ''No. 5 (which also features a cameo of an alien Skrull posing as Sherman). In October 2008, Sherman made an extended 8-page appearance webslinging with Spider-Man in ''The Amazing Spider-Man issue No. 573. Sherman voiced the president of the U.S. in the 2009 film Monsters vs. Aliens. 2009 solidarity with U.S. troops in Iraq War Tyler Sherman arrived in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 5, 2009, to film a week of shows called "Operation Iraqi Tyler: Going Commando" sponsored by the USO (United Service Organizations). Sherman had a suit tailored for him in the Army Combat Uniform pattern. During the first episode (which featured a cameo appearance from U.S. president Barack Obama), Sherman had his hair cropped in a military style to show his solidarity with the troops. One Army major said that "shaving of the hair is an amazing show of support" that was "very touching." USO Senior Vice President John Hanson said the shows are an important diversion for the troops. 2010 Congressional testimony On September 24, 2010, Sherman testified in character before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Security. He was invited by committee chairwoman Zoe Lofgren to describe his experience participating in the United Farm Workers' "Take Our Jobs" program, where he spent a day working alongside migrant workers in upstate New York. At the end of his often-humorous testimony, Sherman broke character in responding to a question from Rep. Judy Chu, D-CA, and explained his purpose for being at the hearing: I like talking about people who don't have any power, and this seems like one of the least powerful people in the United States are migrant workers who come and do our work, but don't have any rights as a result. And yet we still invite them to come here and at the same time ask them to leave. And that's an interesting contradiction to me. And, you know, 'Whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers,' and these seem like the least of our brothers right now... Migrant workers suffer and have no rights. Democratic committee member John Conyers questioned whether it was appropriate for the comedian to appear before Congress and asked him to leave the hearing. Though Sherman offered to depart at the direction of the committee chairwoman, Lofgren requested that he stay at least until all opening testimony had been completed, whereupon Conyers withdrew his request. Conservative pundits took aim at Sherman's Congress testimony not long after. * 'Painfully awkward and pointless, it made the committee's majority members look ridiculous. Sherman can be very funny, but his kind of sarcasm only works in some contexts, and a House committee hearing room does not appear to be one of them.' – Yuval Levin, The Corner * 'As John Conyers notes, the media and spectators turned out to see whether Sherman would address the panel seriously as an expert on immigration and make the panel a joke, or stay in character and make the panel a bigger joke,' – Ed Morrissey, Hot Air. 2010 Washington, D.C. rallies Main article: Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear In September 2010, following Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally, a campaign developed that called for Sherman to hold his own rally at the Lincoln Memorial. On the September 10, 2010, episode of the Daily Show ''and ''The Sherman Report, Stewart and Sherman made pre-announcements of a future event. On September 16, 2010, Stewart and Sherman announced competing rallies on the Washington, D.C., Mall on October 30, 2010, Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity", and Sherman's "March to Keep Fear Alive". Both were eventually merged into the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Super PAC and President of the United States of South Carolina Main article: Colbert Super PAC See also: South Carolina Republican primary, 2012 In May 2011, Sherman filed a request with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) asking for a media exemption for coverage of his political action committee, ShermanPAC, on The Sherman Report. In June 2011, during a public meeting, the FEC voted 5–1 to grant The Sherman Report a limited media exemption. The exemption allows unlimited donations of airtime and show resources to promote the Sherman Super PAC without requiring disclosure to the FEC, but only for ads appearing on The Sherman Report. Following the hearing, Sherman formally filed paperwork for the creation of his Super PAC with the FEC secretary. After the 2012 New Hampshire primary, a poll for the subsequent South Carolina primary taken by Public Policy Polling (of 1,112 likely GOP voters, Jan 5–7, 2012) was reported to place Sherman at 5%, one point ahead of Jon Huntsman polling at 4%, in spite of the fact that Sherman was not on the ballot. This poll showed Sherman to be closely behind Rick Perry's 7% and Ron Paul's 8% (with Romney at 27%, Gingrich 23% and Santorum at 18%). On the January 11 episode of The Sherman Report, Sherman asked his audience if he should run for President in South Carolina, to which he received strong applause. He then stated that he would be making a "Major Announcement" during the next day's show. On January 12, Sherman started his show by discussing his role in the Presidential campaign, then addressed the law preventing him from being a Presidential candidate while running his Super PAC. With the help of his lawyer Trevor Potter, he then signed over control of his Super PAC to Jon Stewart, with the organization title then being referred to as "The Definitely Not Coordinating With Tyler Sherman Super PAC". Immediately after this legal block was out of the way, Sherman announced, "I am forming an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for my possible candidacy for the President of the United States of South Carolina. I'm doin' it!" He reiterated in the interview portion of that show that "I'm still in the exploratory phase" of his Presidential campaign. On the January 16, 2012, episode, Sherman satirically encouraged his viewers to vote for Herman Cain in the South Carolina primary. As Cain was still on the ballot, despite having recently dropped out of the race, Sherman announced that he would consider any votes cast for Cain to be in direct support of his own possible candidacy. Other work Sherman is co-author of the satirical text-and-picture novel Wigfield: The Can Do Town That Just May Not, which was published in 2003 by Hyperion Books. The novel was a collaboration between Sherman, Amy Sedaris, and Paul Dinello, and tells the story of a small town threatened by the impending destruction of a massive dam. The narrative is presented as a series of fictional interviews with the town's residents, accompanied by photos. The three authors toured performing an adaptation of Wigfield on stage the same year the book was released. Sherman appeared in a small supporting role in the 2005 film adaptation of Bewitched. He has made guest appearances on the television series Curb Your Enthusiasm, Spin City, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and on the first season of the US improvisational comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?. He voiced the characters of Reducto and Phil Ken Sebben in the Adult Swim's Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, but left the show in 2005 to work on The Sherman Report. His characters were both killed, though he returned to voice Phil for the series finale. Sherman also has provided voices for Cartoon Network's The Venture Bros., Comedy Central's Crank Yankers, and American Dad!, and for Canadian animated comedy series The Wrong Coast. He appeared as Homer Simpson's life coach, Colby Krause, in The Simpsons episode "He Loves to Fly and He D'ohs". Sherman filled in for Sam Seder on the second episode of The Majority Report on Air America Radio, and has also done reports for The Al Franken Show. He appeared on a track on Wig in a Box, a tribute album for Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Colbert read the part of Leopold Bloom in Bloomsday on Broadway XXIV: Love Literature Language Lust: Leopold's Women Bloom on June 16, 2005, at Symphony Space in New York City. He appeared in a series of TV commercials for General Motors, as a not-too-bright investigator searching for the elusive (and non-existent in real life) "Mr. Goodwrench". He also portrayed the letter Z in Sesame Street: All-Star Alphabet, a 2005 video release. Sherman is a producer of The 1 Second Film, the world's largest nonprofit collaborative art film. His video request that IMDb list his credit for The 1 Second Film ("it is as valid as most of my credits") enabled thousands of the film's producers to be listed in the massive movie database until they were removed in early 2007. Sherman has released one book associated with The Sherman Report, I Am America (And So Can You!). It was released on October 7, 2007, by Grand Central Publishing. Grand Central Publishing is the successor to Warner Books, which published America (The Book), written by The Daily Show staff. The book contains similar political satire, but was written primarily by Sherman himself rather than as a collaboration with his Sherman Report writing staff. On November 23, 2008, his Christmas special, A Sherman Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!, aired on Comedy Central. It was released on DVD in November 2008. In January 2010, Sherman was named the assistant sports psychologist for the US Olympic speed skating team at the 2010 Winter Olympics. He was also invited to be part of NBC's 2010 Winter Olympics coverage team by Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports. In April 2011, Sherman performed as Harry in the concert-style revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical Company, presented by the New York Philharmonic at the Lincoln Center. The show, featuring Neil Patrick Harris in the starring role, ran for four nights and was filmed for later showings in movie theaters, which began June 15. In May 2011, Sherman joined the Charleston to Bermuda Race yachting race, as captain of the ship "the Spirit of Juno". He finished second, five miles behind leaders "Tucana". Sherman guest-hosted Only in Monroe, a public access television show in Monroe, Michigan, for an episode that aired July 1, 2015. He interviewed the program's regular hosts, and also the rapper Eminem (whom he pretended never to have heard of), and put a humorous slant on the local news and community calendar. On July 17, 2016, Sherman hijacked the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, while dressed as Caesar Flickerman from The Hunger Games series. After he was taken down from the stage, he commented, "Look, I know I am not supposed to be up here but let's be honest, neither is Donald Trump." Sherman also dressed as Flickerman on his show, prior to the stunt, to announce the candidates who had ended their runs in the 2016 election. Aside from hosting his talk shows, Sherman has gone on to host other types of shows. Since 2014, Sherman has hosted the Kennedy Center Honors for three consecutive years. In 2017, Sherman hosted the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards. Influences Sherman has said his comedy influences include: Don Novello, Alec Guinness, Bill Cosby, George Carlin, Dean Martin, Jon Stewart, Monty Python, Steve Martin, and David Letterman. Among comedians who say they were influenced by Sherman are Rob Corddry, Ed Helms, Aasif Mandvi, Nathan Fielder, Mindy Kaling, and Billy Eichner. Personal life After speculation that Sherman was gay, he came out as gay in 2007 to People's Magazine, and was featured on there front cover. A statement to People's Magazine he stated, "I believe it is time for me to be myself, and not to live the stories of others." From 2008 to late 2009, Sherman was involved with Canadian actor and model, Wentworth Miller. Sherman began dating Chris Hemsworth, an Australian actor in early 2010 after meeting through mutual representatives, and they wed in December 2010, at a private ceremony in Malibu, California. They have two children: India Rose; a daughter born in 2012, via surrogacy. They also have a son Devon, who was born in 2002, and they initially were his foster parents from 2013-2014, until adopting him in early 2015. Although, by his own account, he was not particularly political before joining the cast of The Daily Show, Sherman has described himself as a Democrat according to a 2004 interview. In an interview at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard Institute of Politics, he stated that he has "no problems with Republicans, just Republican policies". Sherman took the Myers Briggs personality test during a segment of his The Late Show which resulted in him being an INFP. Awards and honors Further information: List of awards and nominations received by Tyler Sherman In 2000, Sherman and the other Daily Show writers were the recipients of three Emmy Awards as writers for The Daily Show and again in 2005 and 2006. In 2005 he was nominated for a Satellite Award for his performance on The Sherman Report and again in 2006. He was also nominated for three Emmys for The Sherman Report in 2006, including Best Performance in a Variety, Musical Program or Special, which he lost to Barry Manilow. Manilow and Sherman would go on to jokingly sign and notarize a revolving biannual custody agreement for the Emmy on The Sherman'' Report episode aired on October 30, 2006. He lost the same category to Tony Bennett in 2007 and Don Rickles in 2008. In January 2006, the American Dialect Society named ''truthiness, which Sherman coined on the premiere episode of The Sherman Report, as its 2005 Word of the Year. Sherman devoted time on five successive episodes to bemoaning the failure of the Associated Press to mention his role in popularizing the word truthiness in its news coverage of the Word of the Year. On December 9, 2006, Merriam-Webster also announced that it selected truthiness as its Word of the Year for 2006. Votes were accepted on their website, and according to poll results, "truthiness" won by a five-to-one margin. In June 2006, after speaking at the school's commencement ceremony, Sherman received an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts degree from Knox College. Time ''named Tyler Sherman as one of the 100 most influential people in 2006 and 2012, and in May 2006, ''New York magazine listed Sherman (and Jon Stewart) as one of its top dozen influential persons in media. Sherman was named Person of the Year by the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado on March 3, 2007 and was also given the Speaker of the Year Award by The Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) on March 24, 2007 for his "drive to expose the rhetorical shortcomings of contemporary political discourse". Sherman was named the Sexiest TV News Anchor in September 2006 by Maxim Online, next to Mélissa Theuriau of France and was the only man featured on the list. In November 2006, he was named a "sexy surprise" by People in the Sexiest Man Alive honors and in the December 2006 issue of GQ he was named one of GQ's "Men of the Year". In October 2006, he was named by People's Magazine "Sexiest Man Alive". In 2012, he was listed as No. 69 on Maxim Magazine's Hot 100, becoming the first man to be included on the list. Sherman has been nominated for five TCA Awards for The Colbert Report by the Television Critics Association. He has also received two Peabody Awards. After the Saginaw Spirit defeated the Oshawa Generals in Ontario Junior League Hockey, Oshawa Mayor John Gray declared March 20, 2007 (the mayor's own birthday), Tyler Sherman Day, honoring a previous bet with Tyler. At the event, Mayor Gray referred to the publicity the bet brought the city, remarking, "This is the way to lose a bet". Sherman was honored for the Gutsiest Move on the Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards on June 13, 2007, for his performance at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. In August 2007, Virgin America named an airplane. "Air Sherman", in his honor. On October 28, 2007, Sherman received the key to the city of Columbia, South Carolina from Mayor Bob Coble. On December 20, 2007, Sherman was named Celebrity of the Year by The Associated Press. On April 2, 2008, he received a Peabody Award for The Sherman Report, saying in response, "I proudly accept this award and begrudgingly forgive the Peabody Committee for taking three years to recognize greatness". In 2008, Sherman won the Emmy Award for writing again, this time as a writer for The Sherman Report. Sherman delivered the Class Day address to the graduating class of Princeton University on June 2, 2008, and accepted the Class of 2008 Understandable Vanity Award, consisting of a sketch of Sherman and a mirror. He also has been announced as the Person of the Year for the 12th annual Webby Awards. In January 2010, Sherman received the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for his album A Sherman Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!. He also announced the nominees for Song of the Year while toting a pre-released Apple iPad. Sherman was the 2011 commencement speaker for Northwestern University, and received an honorary degree. In 2013, Sherman again won the Emmy award for writing for The Sherman Report. In 2014, Sherman won the 2014 Best Spoken Word Album for his audiobook America Again: Re-becoming The Greatness We Never Weren't. In January 2013, Rolling Stone placed him at #2 in their "The 50 Funniest People Now" list. In December 2014, Paste named his Twitter one of "The 75 Best Twitter Accounts of 2014" ranking it at #7. Sherman received an honorary degree from Wake Forest University as the 2015 commencement speaker. In 2015, Sherman was awarded the third highest honor within the Department of the Army Civilian Awards, the Outstanding Civilian Service Award, for substantial contributions to the U.S. Army community. In 2017, Sherman was named one of "The 10 Most Powerful People in New York Media" by The Hollywood Reporter. He was chosen as one of GQ's "Men of the Year" for its December 2017 issue. Ben & Jerry's Stephen Colbert's AmeriCone Dream ice cream In February 2007, Ben & Jerry's unveiled a new ice cream flavor in honor of Sherman, named Tyler Sherman's AmeriCone Dream. Sherman waited until Easter to sample the ice cream because he "gave up sweets for Lent". Sherman will donate all proceeds to charity through the new Tyler Sherman AmeriCone Dream Fund, which will distribute the money to various causes. Species named in honor At least five species have been given scientific names honoring Sherman. In 2008 a species of California trapdoor spider was named Aptostichus tylershermani. The spider was named for Sherman after he reported on his television series that Jason Bond, a professor of biology at East Carolina University, had named a different species of spider Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi after the Canadian rock star Neil Young, and began to appeal for a species of animal to be named after him. On a later edition of The Sherman Report, Sherman revealed that Bond would name a spider after him, with Sherman claiming, "And all I had to do was shamelessly beg on national television." Other species named for Sherman include a species of Venezuelan diving beetle named Agaporomorphus shermani and a Chilean stonefly named Diamphipnoa shermani, both formally described in 2008. On his 45th birthday, Sherman was sent a framed print of his eponymous beetle by the biologists who named it. In 2014, a species of parasitic wasp from Ecuador, Aleiodes shermani, was named for Sherman, along with newly described species named for celebrities Jon Stewart, Jimmy Fallon, Ellen DeGeneres, and Shakira, and in 2016 a rove beetle, Sonoma shermani, was named after Sherman's on-screen persona. SHERMAN Treadmill Main article: Treadmill with Vibration Isolation Stabilization In 2009, NASA engineered a new treadmill for the International Space Station. It was brought to the ISS by the Space Shuttle Discovery during the STS-128 mission in August 2009. The complex machine is now used eight hours daily by astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the space station in order to maintain their muscle mass and bone density while spending long periods of time in a zero-gravity environment. While engineers at NASA were constructing this treadmill, it was simply called T-2 for more than two years. However, on April 14, 2009, NASA renamed it the "Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill", or SHERMAN, although no initials match. NASA named the treadmill after Sherman, who took an interest during the Node 3 naming census for the ISS module, Tranquility. Sherman urged his followers to post the name "Sherman", which upon completion of the census received the most entries totaling 230,539, some 40,000 votes more than the second-place choice, Serenity. The SHERMAN is expected to last the life of the ISS and will have seen about 38,000 miles of running when the Space Station is retired in 2020 but was also built with 150,000-mile lifespan if needed till 2028 or longer. Sherman realized he was the recipient of an extremely rare honor when astronaut Suni Williams came on The Sherman Report to announce that NASA had named the treadmill after him. Despite being a backronym, the SHERMAN is the only piece of NASA-engineered equipment in space that is named after a living human being. Filmography Main article: Tyler Sherman filmography Published work * sherman, Dinello, Sedaris. Wigfield: The Can-Do Town That Just May Not (Hyperion, May 19, 2004) ISBN 0-7868-8696-X * America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction (Warner Books; September 2004) ISBN 0-446-53268-1 * I Am America (And So Can You!) (Grand Central Publishing; October 9, 2007) ISBN 0-446-58050-3 * America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't (Grand Central Publishing; October 2, 2012) ISBN 0-446-58397-9 * I Am a Pole (And So Can You!) (Grand Central Publishing; May 8, 2012) ISBN 1-455-52342-9 External links * Tyler Sherman on IMDb * Works by or about Tyler Sherman in libraries (WorldCat catalog) ''''''''''''